The Substitute 2: School's Out

The Substitute was highly enjoyable. Worth the time. Tom Berenger did a great job. Then came Substitute 2. It wasn't bad, but it just had a different feeling to it. First off, Treat Williams is a nice guy figure. Rather than looking tough and hardened, he looks like some guy that spends 30 minutes a day doing his hair in the bathroom mirror. Here's the whole overview of the movie: A bad kid school's most eminent teacher is shot down by a gang. Mercenarie Karl Thommason (Williams) goes in to take care of the teacher's teenage daughter and bring the killers to justice. A lot of what you see in the first film. The next two sequels are also like that. Fun, though. The B-movie really shows in this one. The blood is highly exaggerated. When someone gets shot, it looks like the special FX men just took some ketchup packets and smashed them so it would gush out. And then there's the supposed "sex" scenes. All they are is two teens sitting on a bed passionately kissing. Wow. Break out the condoms. We're gonna have a baby from kissing. Not only that, Thommason doesn't take the gang down right away. The keep having these little encounters, and he just beats on them a little. If I was him, I would kill them on the spot... Okay, so as flawed as this one was, it was still fun. It was visually superior to the first film, which seemed to have been made with cheaper cameras. But that didn't make it bad. It was better. Oh well.

I was not expecting a lot from this movie as it is a TV B movie but i found it really entertaining. Ok , lets face it , the story line stinks , the acting stinks and the dialogue is even worse but it is still entertaining! The thing i did like about this film is that the director was not afraid to portray specific races as the trouble makers, there is nothing worse than a Politically correct Hollywood movie. At the end of the day this is just the same as Deathwish,The Exterminator or 187 ,a vigilante shootem up movie. 6 out of 10

The movie was really quite good. I haven't watched the first one before, so I didn't know if that one was better or not. Treat Williams wasn't as good as the other actors, he didn't have any expressions on his face! But credit has to be given to Susan May Pratt and the utterly gorgeous Edoardo Ballerini. I have to admit though that the fight sequences were really quite bad.

Ex-marine Randall Thomasson is a teacher in an inner city school in charge of the difficult class for violent or disaffected youth. When he sees a car jacking by the `brotherhood', a gang of criminals who wear hooded tops backwards. The end result is him being killed. His brother returns from his life as a mercenary to look after his daughter and to uncover who was responsible. He goes under cover as a teacher in his brother's old class and begins to stir things up.

The original wasn't that good or successful so why did they feel the need to repeat the formula again. However that's exactly what they do and if you've seen the first then there's no need to watch this film. The plot is exactly the same and full of the same weaknesses – all this killing around a school but no policemen at all? However it is OK in a brainless sort of way. The action is scaled down but there are a few good fights towards the end. Much of the action is `A-Team' style – witness Karl and Joey 6 in a school corridor with 6 men at either end firing automatic weapons and then explain to me how no one got hit at all! It's all pretty dumb but is passable for 90 minutes.

Treat Williams is not a great actor but can do OK. Here he isn't as convincing a mercenary as Berenger was (not bitter or tough enough) but he does a good job and his quiet cool style is fun to watch. Those who think there is no connection between this and the first film must have missed the inclusion of the character Joey 6 again, however here he is played well by Angel David. TV fans will be surprised by Michael Michelle (Cleo from ER) and a really different role for Wong (usually a mild mannered priest in Oz). The rest of the cast are all homeboys, gangbanger stereotypes who stand up to Karl but fail and are eventually won over yadayadayada! The main one of interest to me was a rare acting role for Gifted Unlimited Rhymes Universal (Guru to you), many hiphop stars cross over to movies – my question is why he chose to do this?

The most interesting thing about the cast of the substitute films is the way they all seem to keep the cast of `Thing to do in Denver when you're dead' in work! Forsythe was in part 1, Williams is in parts 2 and 3 and in part 4 is joined by Bill Nunn. Not amazing I'll grant you but just weird to see them all getting involved!

Overall the cast are OK and the story is a straight lift with some name changes. The action is pretty thin but it has a dumb energy and is actually quite good if you're in an undemanding mood.

I'm not really sure what inspired me to see this, I didn't think the first film was anything terribly great, but nonetheless I still felt compelled to watch the sequel.

I could be wrong, but I don't think this film has ANYTHING to do with the first film, other than the story is pretty much the same. As far as story goes, if you've seen the first film, then you've seen this one. Other than some minor plot points, the story is virtually the same.

The cast was surprisingly good in this film though. I thought Treat Williams did a fine job. I'm surprised the B.D. Wong was in this movie, I think he's a really good actor, and shouldn't bother with films like "The Substitute 2: School's Out", but I'm sure he had his reasons for appearing in this film. Some other good additions to the film are Michael Michele (TV's "ER") and Susan May Pratt (10 Things I Hate About You, Drive Me Crazy, Center Stage), very beautiful women!

All in all, I thought the movie was just ok, but nothing worthy of going out of your way to see. If you do end up seeing it, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading,

-Chris